best replies should appear first in a thread.

[Poker Player]

OP, if I were you I would lock the thread. Just so you don't continue to accumulate opinions against your idea. You have had an idea, about which people are mostly against and now it is time to move on.

Of all the responses most are radically against it, and a few say that some of what you say makes sense but they don't see the need for it. You can add one more to those who are radically against it, mine. This forum is fine showing replies in chronological order, there is no need to change it nor would it be positive at all.

[1714479443]

1714479443

[Plaguedeath]

You're talking about reddit, such interface will make advertisement become better, but it's not good for reading all the replies because it ruin the arrangement.

I wouldn't surprise to see a drama about merit because merit selling is very possible here, to make the user who wear their signature comes up into the first page. The problem of merit selling is good evidence, people could deny it's not merit selling by saying giving merit is subjective.

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

@hatshepsut93 published a script some time ago that allows one to sort by merits a given thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5194870.msg52836909#msg52836909

In the context for the thread it was initially aimed at, the Anniversary Art Contest, it’s an alternative view that could make sense. In general terms though, it will break the order of the conversational flow, leading to likely missing out comments that build-up to a given posted answer/comment.

[Adbitco]

I think post are being merited according to how you finds it useful and helpful besides others may not see it interesting therefore may not be merited or may not value it. So if judging by merits then I can say is wrong, have you seen were someone post nothing much meaningful and gain merits to it? Yes some are just because that person is a giver as well and has gained popularity and to whatever they posted they easily gets merits but this doesn't show how constructive the post is to other people. Besides other thing I noticed is that a thread are being sorted according to how they replied there's no way it would be on random sorts rather than # counting from 1 to last page.

[robelneo]

Best Answer In fact other forums are already implementing this, if I have a forum I will never implement this as it will not encourage diversity in response readers will just focus on that one reply disregarding all the other incoming replies that could be better than the best reply and besides discussion begets new discussion within a discussion, if you have this it will discourage that.

I doubt this current forum software is compatible to that upgraded version. Also, there's already merit system which work the same for this. It could be more helpful if there's a sort feature of every thread's reply, the most/least merited reply, oldest/newest, etc..

Of course, there will be compatibility features, and it's coming from a third party I just want to point out to OP there's existing already but it's different when it comes to compatibility, there are requests that cannot be granted because of compatibility to the forum version Bitcointalk is using, when I still have an active forum I faced a lot of issues when it comes to compatibility, it's better for an SMF to have a simplified features it loads faster and few bugs the best replies should appear in a thread feature will totally shake up how the posters view the threads and posts.

[NotATether]

It's not Reddit or Stack Exchange with an upvote/downvote system - and please leave merit out of this - it's just an ordinary discussion forum.

There's probably tens of millions of topics by now, so implementing any PHP algorithm to sort the records by "usefulness" (however that's defined) before they are returned to the client is going to tax the server every time someone clicks on a topic, and the drop in loading speed will be noticeable.

[Findingnemo]

Actually i have no problem with OP's idea, as long as it's not enabled by default and user must manually click button such as "Sort by merit, date" on each thread. Just don't forget not all reply has quote of thread/it's previous reply which could cause confusion.

Sorting replies by the number of merits is not a really good idea cause how can we decide that the post that has more merits is the best reply of every thread cause it varies due to different factors.

For example, a post that is on the first page possibly will get more attention so likely to get more merits if the content serves the purpose of the OP's query but sorting replies based on merits will collapse the structure of the discussion and a thread is supposed to be a place discussion happens so implementing such feature as default may create a chaos overall.

[Lucius]

I have this habit of reading through many replies to a thread before I will respond. At the course of reading through few pages of a thread before replying, I discovered that;

It's a good habit and it makes sense because in this way you avoid that in your post (if you're going to write it) you won't repeat what others have already written before you.

• The earliest replies get more attention and earn more merit
• Some of the replies from pages 3 upwards are repetition of what others said in pages 1 and 2.

That's just proof that few members read more than the first to a maximum of 3 pages of a topic, and then what about topics that are meaningless in themselves and have 10 or more than 15 pages each and serve as spam megathreads for sig campaign spammers.

From time to time, some members appear who wonder how it is that they can never get merits, and they don't realize that their posts are buried under a pile of garbage and that probably no one has even read them.

• I also understood that some of the quality contributors sometimes arrive late and their replies get buried easily

I therefore propose that, if possible, the arrangement of replies to a thread should be based on the number of merits that reply earned in that very thread. This will tend to sort the quality replies to appear in the first page no matter what time it was made.
~snip~

What you imagine is perhaps technically feasible, but as others have already mentioned, we cannot always rely on merits as something that defines whether a post is of better quality than another in the same topic. I often notice that some members favor certain members when it comes to merits, regardless of the fact that someone else has written an equally good or maybe even better post.

Such a way of sorting posts would theoretically allow some 10-20 members to be at the top in each topic, which would mean even more merit for them, and even less opportunity for those who really need merit to reach the next rank.

[Coin_trader]

I made almost same request like this last year https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5400811.msg60258814#msg60258814 but for Beginners and Help Board to easily locate an answer for all the trivial questions thread for easy filtering all the post since thread here can be easily flooded due spam post from signature campaigns.

But same problem arise abotu who will determine the top answer for that specific question. This is really good for newbie to easily find the answer when they use the search bar and see similar question thread on there mind but this feature will obviously need to have a voting system or a centralized touch to come up with the accurate result. Additional work load therefore very hard to implement.

[Majestic-milf]

Best reply with you can be not a best reply with me. Because you have your knowledge that is different than me. What you need, what can help you can be different than what can help me. A post is helpful with you can not be helpful with me because I already know about that knowledge.

If a best reply is only based on its received merit, it is not correct too. Received merits can be emotionally distributed by merit sources and how thin or deep their sourced merits is at a time they click on Merit. Received merit can be from farm accounts too so it does not good to use for choosing a best reply.

We are thinking on the same wavelength. Although the Op is making a suggestion, I feel he's trying to say something but he's not wanting to be clear about it.
 Everyone has their way or rating good reply thats why sometimes a well written, comprehensive post may not get the deserved merits but someone can jumble the English and someone else will understand the message they are trying to pass across and then dole out merits.

[348Judah]

If you're suggesting that the best replies should appear first on a thread, that means any reply made that is not rated the best or among the best should then be a low quality reply which automatically qualify it to be off topic or low quality post, now the issue here is who will be responsible in sorting out replies made, how and what criteria will you use to determine the low quality post from the best replies to rate each accordingly, i hope you never underestimate the delivery capacity of everyone here because we all keep learning each day, quality post or replies is not by rank or being centralized on particular set of people, everyone including you can make that required standard and deliver the best and your replies may be on the last page, what matters is the conveyance of the required information in what you post.

[NotATether]

There's probably tens of millions of topics by now, so implementing any PHP algorithm to sort the records by "usefulness" (however that's defined) before they are returned to the client is going to tax the server every time someone clicks on a topic, and the drop in loading speed will be noticeable.

Shouldn't such algorithm implemented directly on the database?

MySQL (That being the forum's database server program) doesn't have a way to make a procedure out of such a complicated sorting feature as usefulness, because it requires analyzing the entire text and only machine learning can do that.

Besides, when the only contents of your post table are "ID", "user", "text", and "merits received", and the language is SQL, there is only so much you can do.

[LoyceV]

I always imagined part of the reason to introduce the Merit system was to use it to differentiate between posts once enough good posts have been Merit. It just never happened. I can think of many pitfalls, so it's probably a good thing.

However, a third party would be able to do this! @TryNinja has a very nice database with posts, and he could probably sort them based on the Merit they received. I did it for Bitcointalk's 10th anniversary art contest (for some reason none of the images work through the image proxy anymore, so it's useless now), and for that topic it made sense. For most topics it will completely mess up the discussion, or show very old posts. Imagine sorting by Merit on the Wall Observer thread, you'll end up with more or less random posts instead of a discussion.

[TheUltraElite]

I see the point and maybe I have myself thought of the same at times. Now the concept of the forum traditionally has been the chronological order for posts. There are methods to rearrange posts in a thread based on maximum likes and maximum comments and so on.

"Arrange by merit" maybe a good option but then the problem that arises but everyone overlooks is that the voice of the rest of the forum gets wiped under the rug and that is a bad thing. Merit sources might have to read through threads for finding posts to merit and this problem remains as it is. Overall I dont see how we can improve on this, but feel free to come up with suggestions.

[tbct_mt2]

I see the point and maybe I have myself thought of the same at times. Now the concept of the forum traditionally has been the chronological order for posts.

Default setting, in a thread, posts will be from oldest to newest but if you customize your setting, posts can be displayed from newest to oldest but I don't like this order. It is hard to view a thread with this reverse displaying order.

I would like to read OP, eary posts and make my comments if I can contribute for the thread or can help OP.

"Arrange by merit" maybe a good option but then the problem that arises but everyone overlooks is that the voice of the rest of the forum gets wiped under the rug and that is a bad thing. Merit sources might have to read through threads for finding posts to merit and this problem remains as it is. Overall I dont see how we can improve on this, but feel free to come up with suggestions.

Merit ordering sounds good but in flow of discussion, it will make me feel uncomfortable to get the flow and I don't like it. I read a post not only because it is merited and a post without merit can have some interesting idea or information.

Code:

Show most recent posts at the top.

[Saisher]

It will not work for a popular forum when a single discussion can generate hundreds of replies you'll have to check all the replies to vote for the best ones and most of the time those late replies give additional information that may be lacking on the earlier replies and not all the voted best replies are the best answers there is a difference between popular and factual on replies.

[OcTradism]

However, a third party would be able to do this! @TryNinja has a very nice database with posts, and he could probably sort them based on the Merit they received.

A userscript of hatshepsut93 can do it. Filter posts by most merited posts in a thread.

I can not quote the userscript quote in this post (error but why I can not quote it ?) so you can get the code from hatshepsut93's post.

Here you go, it adds a "sort by merit" button right before the "reply" button. Works well even on large threads, tried it with all posts from the anniversary art thread.

[m2017]

But nuances arise. How to evaluate the usefulness of posts? Merit is not a 100% objective measure of usefulness. Especially in the hands of merit sources, who sometimes throw away merit in batches left and right, which casts doubt on the usefulness of certain posts.

You have a great observation here. I admire your sense of reasoning. As you said, this could cause another problem whereby we may have a group of people who may agree to keep one another's post on the first page. They may keep sending merits to the posts to keep them at the top even when the post quality does not worth it.

Be careful with this, flattery is my weakness.
I just expressed my point of view and my vision of the situation, which, in my opinion, seemed the most noticeable. Neither merit nor such an abstract concept as the quality of a post are adequate criteria for ranking posts. Until now, the time of the post was used (the earlier post is located at the beginning of the topic) and probably nothing better can be thought of (without compromising functionality and systematicity).

The idea of ranking posts based on merit seems interesting (moving posts with merit to the front pages), but wouldn't that disrupt the natural flow of discussion on the forum and create confusion in the sequence of posts? That is, it will turn out that the answers to the questions will be in front (the first pages) of the questions themselves. In my opinion, this will create chaos with posts.

Disruption of the natural flow of conversation is your strongest point and I do no think I have a way off it for now. Thanks for your seasoned contribution.

Need to think, perhaps it will be possible to find some kind of solution if the bitcointalk community needs it. No thanks needed. I was just glad to be helpful, but this is not the most significant contribution, to put it mildly, in finding a solution to the problem you voiced.

However, a third party would be able to do this! @TryNinja has a very nice database with posts, and he could probably sort them based on the Merit they received.

A userscript of hatshepsut93 can do it. Filter posts by most merited posts in a thread.

I read this topic to the end and discovered that the solution was found back in 2019.

[Twentyonepaylots]

And who or what decides which are the best replies? Because it's clearly neither the length nor the rank of the poster that could be added into the equation.

We cannot apply such a rule or feature that is very subjective. Some are not native English speaker, that may say less but is worth reading.

I hope that you don't expect somebody (moderator?) would read every post and give it some points/ranking, right?

That's a lot of work to do actually.

[EarnOnVictor]

The truth is that the best replies can't be known in a thread of many pages, not even moderators will be efficient enough to justify a post as the best, which is why I advise we leave it the way it is as it's in any other forum. Anyone who is seeking answers should browse through the volume therein and will surely get to know the ones that are being repeated often that are constructive enough.

Also, the merit suggestion you gave is not a good idea, by now you should know that the meriting of a post could be biased and personal, it's not a good yardstick to know the best posts as it's often sentimental.